ROCKFORD-Talent alone doesn’t make someone a top level athlete like Fred Van Vleet. That’s why so many young Rockford athletes are following Van Vleet’s footsteps and putting in that extra effort on their own. Like Van Vleet they go to the top training center in the Stateline.

Tim Bailey’s Top Performers Sports Performance Center in Loves Park helped Van Vleet become noticeably stronger, quicker and more explosive with it’s unique drills and latest training techniques. This is where athletes want to be if they’re serious about achieving greatness.

"He’s definitely pushing you to be better. He puts you out of that comfort zone," says Boylan quarterback Demry Croft about Bailey.

"Tim and his program are really intense. They push you to the point where you didn’t think you could go," says Boylan volleyball player Bryanna Weiskircher.

Weiskircher has been coming here for three years. It’s paid off. Her added explosiveness and higher vertical leap helped land her a volleyball scholarship to Penn State. Penn State has won five of the last seven NCAA Championships.

"Some of the things he asks me to do I’m like what? Then the next day I’ll be really sore, and I’ll be like OK it worked," says Weiskircher.

A six rep max test on a machine that puts downward pressure on the shoulders and spine is one unique drill Bailey uses to improve Weiskircher’s power and explosiveness.

"We’ll bring a kid in. We’ll take him through our evaluation which is a very comprehensive evaluation," says Bailey.

Like this one on Croft who’s being recruited by major college’s across the country. They check his body asymmetry. Through this functional movement test they discovered Croft’s right side of his body or throwing side was tighter than his left side.

"So now we need to go back and see where the problem lies," says Bailey. "Is it just tightness? Is it a mobility issue?"

If they can put Croft on a training program to alleviate that tightness, then the velocity on Croft’s passes will pick up.

"We want to make sure he’s as efficient as possible when he’s throwing that ball," says Bailey.

Lutheran sophomore running back James Robinson also comes to Top Performers.

"He’s working with me on my leg drive," says Robinson. "I think I’m going to get faster and then I’m getting stronger too. He’s working on my acceleration."

"We’ve had kids become no-name players to MVPs in the NIC-10. We’ve had athletes who in the interim of their basketball career or whatever sport it may be it didn’t’ look like they were potentially college bound, and then they’re ending up getting a D-1 scholarship," says Bailey.

Pictures of top athletes fill one wall of Top Performers. This place is one more reason why more Rockford athletes will have a better chance of achieving great things.

Top Performers Sports Performance is located inside Club Fusion at 7135 Clinton Road in Loves Park. The phone number is (815) 986-8397.

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